Proposed Canon

Side

Under King Saline IV, the side was known as the Plaid Tribe of Men. The gobwins and hobgobwins (normally Natural Allies to be trusted) broke alliance and attacked Gobwin Knob while Stanley (Chief Warlord and Heir) was conveniently away with his dwagons and many of the city's casters. The city was taken and King Saline IV was croaked. Since Stanley was the heir of the kingdom, the side continued to exist under his rule. He returned the next day with the Arkenhammer, casters, and dwagons and succesfully retook the city. During the Battle for Gobwin Knob, the faction consisted mainly of gobwins and hobgobwins with very few men remaining in its service - and many of those not of Plaid descent.

Capital

Location

Gobwin Knob is built within the caldera of a dormant volcano. Relative to most of the world, its location is unclear. However, Transylvito is as few as a half day or as many as three days by dwagon away, so it is anywhere from 28 to 165 hexesErf-b1-p46a away. (See Discussion for how this number was calculated.)

During the Battle for Gobwin Knob

The Level 5 city of Gobwin Knob was infamous as the most strongly fortified position on Erfworld and the capital city of the Plaid Tribe and later the eponymous faction. The city was built around the sky-scraping Tower of Efdup within the caldera of an extinct volcano, beneath which stretched a labyrinth of tunnels and mines that were thought mined out. During the Battle, the Tunnels were collapsed, reducing the City to Level 1. This action was insufficient to stop the Royal Crown Coalition, so the Casters caused the volcano to reawaken and erupt, destroying all of the invading forces, but leaving a few non-living troops that held Stanley's claim to the city after the Casters had evacuated. The Dirtamancer Sizemore had discovered that more veins of gems lay deep in the volcano and controlled the eruption so as to reveal these, providing the city with one of the highest known incomes in the world. The city as a whole was nearly destroyed as a result of the battle, Sizemore's collapsing of the tunnels, and the subsequent explosion; however, it remained a viable Level 1 city, continuing to produce Units in the aftermath of the battle.

After the Battle for Gobwin Knob

The city was rebuilt to Level 5 on the first day after the battle, by order of Stanley the Tool before the Ruler arrived at the City.

City Zones

During the Battle for Gobwin Knob, the city of Gobwin Knob was formed of four Zones -- Outer Walls, Tunnels, Airspace, and Garrison. Garrison was constructed of three smaller Zones -- Tower, Courtyard, and Dungeon.

Tower -- Could only be attacked from Airspace or another Garrison Zone.

Dungeon -- Could only be attacked from Tunnels or another Garrison Zone.

Courtyard -- Could only be attacked from Outer Walls or another Garrison Zone.

Note that for all cities, defenders treat the entire city as a single hex, and so do not expend Move and may redeploy at will. (This may be limited to Units assigned to the Garrison.)

The refurbished city is quite different than the original; it is now smaller and asymmetrical; the tunnels have shrunk in size, the Outer Walls now include a gate, and there is a new zone - a permanent lava lake. The basic structure is tiered. (See Speculation below for more on tiered cities, and why this might make the defenses stronger than normal.) It is not known how the various Zones interconnect, and which ones still exist, or what new ones exist.

Natural Allies

Unit Production

Speculation

Tiered cities, like Constantinople in the Real World and Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings, are notoriously difficult to capture. An invading army would need to capture a series of walls, each time being forced to move their siege engines up to a new level before beginning to lay siege to the next wall, all the while under constant fire from the defenders, who merely retreat to the next wall when the previous is taken, only fighting with desperation on the last wall. The walls are generally built such that they defend outward, and provide no protection for those attacking the next wall in, so taking one wall places attackers in a position vulnerable to attack from the next wall in. A general rule of thumb would be that it would take 10 times the defending troops to successfully assail a city: a tiered city of this type might require 30 or 40 times the number of defending troops to capture. Constantinople was never taken from its walls: it is now Istanbul because the invading Muslim army moved ships over land into the sea the city was built beside, and took the city from there. Some of the tiered walls still stand, and you can visit them in Turkey.

Gobwin Knob might begin popping new Units never seen before on the Side. The only heavies formerly popped had to be able to exit the city via Tunnels or Airspace, so only Twoll, Spidews and Dwagons had been popped. With a Gate, other Heavies can now leave the city, so it would make more sense to pop them now, if there are any other Heavy units available.

(A Twoll heavy was killed outside of GK, but it's unclear whether he popped in GK and then exited via tunnels or perhaps Dwagon, or if he was popped elsewhere).